Anyway, on the work front, my ITS2020 Project, has finally ended! We obtained the Completion Certificate (or more accurately, the ‘Performance Certificate’ as it is known contractually) 2 months back! Signifying that we’ve completed all our obligations! Now, where’s our friggin payments?!?? Yup, that’s what I’ve got to do now, go after the Client for the balance of our money... And life goes on…
Here’re some photos of the ITS2020 Project(s), for memory’s sake.
A dynamic message sign (DMS) in Dubai, ITS2020/1B Project …as you can see, it was taken during the COVID times… compliments of a photo-savvy colleague, …umm… what’s his name, yes, Harsha Jayaramaiah, the Systems Integration Engineer of our project.
The ITS2020 Projects were a set of intelligent traffic systems (ITS) projects aimed at upgrading Dubai’s traffic management system to more efficiently monitor & manage road traffic and incidents. Our company (in partnership with local specialist contractor, Scientechnic) was awarded 2 of the 5 packages on offer, Package 1B which was for the installation of dynamic message signs (DMS) all over Dubai (112 of them, altogether), and Package 1C for the construction of the communication network and power supply systems to all the ITS field devices across the city. Yours truly was the Project Manager of the 1B Package (for most of the project duration anyway), and also took over the 1C Package for its close-out phase, ahem.
Here goes the photos…
A DMS gantry on Sheikh Zayed Road, near the Museum of the Future… Again, taken during the COVID-19 times, by the same photo-savvy colleague, Harsha… ‘Stay Home, Stay Safe’
And this was taken by, none other than, yours truly, ahem… Can’t even read what’s on it! It’s the darn LED lights… I think you’ve gotta do it with long exposure with a proper camera, not with some measly Redmi mobile phone, while on the road…
The message signs are the nice and visible parts of the project, but that’s only part of the works involved… you’ve gotta drive some piles into the ground for them signs, you know?
And you’ve gotta dig loads of trenches for the cables and the ducts, install manholes, and cabinets, etc. (Incidentally, the 1C package’s scope is mainly that, hundreds of kilometres of cables and ducts, but everything’s underground! The only visible things after the work is done, are the communication hubs, feeder pillars and IT cabinets, and there’re hundreds of them all over the city)
This is the only photo I have of the 1C Package, pre-casting of manholes… at the ITS2020/1C Site Office
Sometimes disaster strikes! Accidentally hitting an irrigation pipeline while carrying out soil investigation works! This photo shows the trench where the damaged pipeline lies (under water), with dewatering pipes sticking out like weeds in a marsh (they’ll have to be connected to a main dewatering pipeline to carry the water away to a discharge point…) so that the damaged pipeline could be replaced…
Now, for the people, the most important part of any project…
Eid Al Fitr 2019 gathering (yeah, that long ago), organized by our specialist partner, Scientechnic, for the ITS2020 Project, at the Patiala Restaurant, Souk Al Bahar. From left to right, they are: - Kevin Williams (Scientechnic’s Project Director), Habeeb Khan (NOC Coordinator), Rathinavel Arumugam (QC Manager), Devansh Raj Kanchan (Assistant Project Manager, a promising engineer from Scientechnic… wonder where he left to), Qamar Abbas (Scientechnic’s Senior Project Engineer), Mohammed Badruddin Naveed (Technical Engineer), and Arunkumar Chenicheri (Technical Manager of the 1C Package). With the exception of Kevin, who’s an Irishman, the rest are all Indians.
The first DMS installation, Jul 2019. A butterfly post structure, but done without the cladding (a big mistake, we’d find out later… it had to be taken down again, sent to the factory for the cladding to be fitted, and brought back for re-installation …with traffic diversions to be done for bringing it down, and reinstallation – just imagine the extra costs for that silly bravado, just to prove we were on time…) Let’s see whether I can get the names correct (it was done during a time that I wasn’t in the project), from left to right: - Ali Ruhi Alsancak (Ortana’s representative in Dubai – Ortana is the Turkish supplier of the DMS panel); Devansh; Ghazi Al Sheikh (Parsons’ Resident Engineer of the ITS2020/1B Project); Sarvesh Nayak (ITS Engineer); Laith Rababa (QAQC Engineer); Ibrahim Dib (Traffic Engineer); hmmm… is that Ali Ridha?? (Project Engineer); …the next two look familiar, but I can’t really place a name…; and lastly, Gul Nawaz (I think, Foreman). Ali of Ortana is Turkish, the RE is Syrian, Devansh & Sarvesh are from India, Ibrahim is Lebanese, Laith is from Jordan if I’m not mistaken, and Nawaz is Pakistani. A mix of nationalities as you can see! That’s Dubai!
A group photo at the ITS2020/1B Site Office, Oct 2019. From left: Trinu Rajan (in front, Technical Engineer); Arunkumar (at the back); Maricel Cabatbat (NOC Coordinator); Naveed; Sameh Mahfouth (NOC Coordinator, yes, another one – NOC or No Objection Certificates are permits or approvals issued by the respective authorities and/ or stakeholders to allow construction works at any particular location to proceed. As the ITS2020 project covers different locations all over the city of Dubai, NOCs are the most important thing to possess to enable works to take place); Hussein Shawkt (Project Manager, he’s the PM who took over from me in April 2019, and whom I succeeded later on, in Dec 2019, let’s just say that he had a fallout with our Consultants and some of us in the team); Habeeb; Devansh; Vineeth Thomson (Planning Manager); Laith; Abdul Saleem (Systems Project Manager); Sarvesh; Avinash Kuruba (way at the back, QAQC Engineer); Rathinavel; Abhishek Radhakrishnan (ITS Engineer); Mohammad Saleem (Document Controller); and Eldho John (Electrical Engineer). Of the ‘new people’ mentioned in this photo, Trinu, Vineeth, Abdul Saleem, Avinash, Abhishek, Mohammad Saleem and Eldho are Indians, Maricel is Filipino, Sameh is Palestinian (from the West Bank), and Hussein is Egyptian.
Fancy bumping into project colleagues at a conference – Meet Shahid Riaz, middle (no, not Shahed. That’s the drone…), Materials Engineer from Parsons, the Engineer/ Consultants of the ITS2020 Project. His colleague on the right also looks familiar, but I can’t recall his name. Shahid is Pakistani. At a conference organized by Dubai Municipality at the InterContinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City, Nov 2019
Back to the ITS2020/1B Office, another group photo! Dec 2019 (while I was on a short 1- week family holiday in Tunisia). From left: Trinu, Maricel, Francheska Tiamson (Secretary), Jaicin Joy (QS), Evika Mathew (Document Controller+QS), Naveed, Mukadas (Office Assistant), Mubashir Wani (Senior Project Engineer, specializing in NDRC i.e. non-destructive road crossing works), Mark Anthony Abeleda (I think, Document Controller), Ayush Agarwal (Technical Manager), X (can’t really recognize him, with only half his face seen), Brijesh Moothat (Scientechnic’s Senior Manager for Technical Support), Hussein, Hashir Mohamed Kaleel (QS), Harinder Bhasin (Scientechnic’s Manager for Projects), …hmmm, this is a very familiar face, but for the love of God, I can’t remember his name…, Vishnu Vijayan (QS Manager), Aliasgar Numberdar (Planner), Sarvesh, another 2 persons whom I just can’t remember, and Satyajith (Draftsman). The ‘newbies’ in this photo are all Indians with the exception of Francheska and Mark (who’re Filipino), and Hashir, who is Sri Lankan.
The 3 musketeers, Feb 2020 – Ahmed Nehro (left, Construction Manager, from Egypt), Edsel Nariz (middle, Project Engineer, from the Philippines), and Faseeh Ullah (right, Project Engineer, from Pakistan).
Installation of the penultimate DMS… (the new ones I mean, not the rehabilitated ones, those are another headache altogether), Mar 2020. As you can see, installations were done at night, typically after 1am, with help from the police. We had to close the entire friggin road when installing it… From left: Man in red whom I don’t know; Laith; Bernar Makdisi (Safety Manager); Antoine Atallah (Construction Manager); Engineer Ghazi, the RE from Parsons; yours truly; Ibrahim Dib; and Nizar Makdisi (Site Engineer). The Makdisis are Syrian Christians, while Antoine is Lebanese (Christian, obviously, from his name).
Finally, all things must come to an end. Here’s a farewell party in Dec 2020, for Ajeesh Ramakrishnan, the Project Manager of ITS2020 Package 1A, which was directly under Scientechnic (middle, in green), in Scientechnic’s maintenance office in the Jebel Ali Industrial Area. Of those that I can recognize here (even with their COVID-masks on), are, from left to right: - Shahid Alam (on the left of Ajeesh, Surveyor); Bernar (in black, on the right of Ajeesh); Safi Ullah Khan (the tall one in the middle, Deputy Project Manager of Package 1A); skip; Sohail Ali (the muscular one in black, Document Controller); Hashir; Rathinavel; skip; Shamsudheen Sharooth (QS); Bashar Al Nuwasir (NOC Coordinator Package 1A); and Ibrahim Dib. Ajeesh and Sohail are Indians, Shahid and Safi Ullah are Pakistanis, Shamsudheen is Sri Lankan, and Bashar is Iraqi.
That’s all for today. I hope I got all the names correct. Let’s pray that this senseless war stops for good…
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